French Language

Casa Mia Montessori School offers lessons in French language to children from the age of three.

In her work with children, Dr Montessori identified what she termed a sensitive period for language that lasts from birth to around 6yrs.old.

The Montessori Method of Education has a strong emphasis on the development of language, supporting and enhancing the children’s experiences in many areas.

The child’s first language and the language development that the child has achieved by the time they enter the Children’s house is honoured.

In the prepared environment, there are many structured and unstructured experiences to support the child in their continuing French language development.

These range from specific lessons giving the vocabulary of nouns, size and comparative qualities such as darkest and lightest colours to singing and listening to stories and poems.

At Casa Mia Montessori, from the age of three the children engage with a native French speaker. Initially, learning songs, playing games and listening to stories.

As the children grow older, their engagement becomes more structured in the French class moving from listening and speaking to reading and writing French.

In the classroom setting the home teacher will incorporate awareness of another language in the Grace and Courtesy lessons. In the Fundamental needs of Man studies the children may be engaged in practical life activities such as transferring food with chop sticks or carrying water in a can whilst walking the line. In the language enrichment lessons the children learn where words in the English language have come from such as octagon from the Latin ‘octo’ and in the word study activities the children learn which languages the root words, prefixes and suffixes have come from.